World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International: Hands-on

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How does Konami's superb soccer sim improve upon last year's effort?

By Douglass C. Perry

Ever since Konami leveled gamers with International Superstar Soccer back in the Nintendo 64 days, the phenomenal simulation-style soccer game created by the TYO team has continued to make small but significant steps with the most realistic and engaging soccer game on the planet. The dedicated development studio creates three versions of each iteration, one for Japan (Winning Eleven 7), Europe (Pro Evolution 3), and North America (World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International). And on February 10, Konami plans to deliver yet another superb game in the series, World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International, replete with knockout new animations, fiercer AI, and an easier to understand set up among other impressive improvements.

As opposed to its biggest and better selling competitor (EA's FIFA Soccer series), which remains a solid arcade game while earnestly striding toward sim-like play, the Winning Eleven series each year is more honed and refined, focused more on improving small particulars that highlight the already superbly balanced gameplay style. This year's effort offers a smattering of changes on all fronts, particularly in graphics and animations, presentation and set-up (i.e. ease of use), and AI play.

For those who have played the series before, several things will appear familiar. The game enables players to select from 50 national teams, each with updated rosters and star players, and 60 "fake" club teams. Since Konami regularly doesn't acquire all of the club team licenses, it offers an easy-to-use editor to quickly fashion your team to precisely "simulate" you favorite club team and players with accurate uniform colors, name configurations and more.

This year's iteration gives players several modes of play, including Match Mode, League mode, Cup mode, Master League mode, Training mode, and edit mode. Match mode enables players the chance to play an exhibition game or shoot penalties; League mode enables players to select from 16 teams in a round robin tournament against the computer, none of which include extra time or penalties; and Cup mode gives players the chance to set up custom leagues and cup tournaments. Players can customize all sorts of great aspects of this last mode, such as match time; difficulty; cup name (international, European cup, African cup, etc.); eligible teams, competition type, group name, number of teams, number of players, home/away; uniform selection, accumulated fatigue, and injuries.

There's also Master league mode, enabling players to manage a club team, including acquiring and training players and competing in league and cup games. Players start in Division 2 (D2) of one of the four leagues, with the aim to win the championship. There's also a healthy Training mode, including Free training, Challenge training to play for points, or a sub-mode to learn the basic principles for beginners. Naturally, there's the important Edit Mode, which gives players the ability to edit players, teams and to save data management, which in essence gives them the ability to make those 60 fake teams 60 real club teams.

The world's most popular soccer game returns to America! With its pure soccer approach, Winning Eleven has become the clear favorite of soccer fans everywhere and is widely regarded as the definitive soccer gaming experience. The series returns to North America with Winning Eleven 7, representing a mammoth step forward over its predecessor. Every element of the game has been tweaked, reworked and enhanced resulting in the most realistic and pure soccer experience available.